Cancellations on Johnsonville rail line increasing due to driver shortages and maintenance problems
Thursday, 20 June 2019
While Wairarapa rail commuters continue to wait for their late trains, the number of Johnsonville commuters left without a train altogether is on the rise.
Latest Metlink figures show just 41.6 per cent of trains arrived on time on the Wairarapa line in May, while cancellation rates in Johnsonville shot up more than 11 per cent.
For Wairarapa commuters, the figures actually represented an improvement: in the same month last year, 42.2 per cent of train services ran late.
But for those in Johnsonville, the number of cancelled trains increased from less than 1 per cent in May last year, to 12 per cent this year.
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The cancellations were blamed on driver shortages and maintenance problems.
'Reliability on the Johnsonville line has declined more than other lines as the operator [Tranzdev] aims to minimise the number of passengers impacted by unreliable services,' a report for Greater Wellington regional councillors stated.
Across the network, cancellations rates had risen to 6.5 per cent in May, compared with just over 2 per cent in the same month last year.
The number of delayed services had been 'poor' throughout the month, with a signal outage on May 21 and slippery tracks caused by wet weather on May 30 adding to the problems.
The situation was not a lot better for bus users in the central city and eastern and western suburbs, with almost 11 per cent of services running late.
Unsurprisingly, the problems had led to an increase in complaints to Metlink.
Complaints from rail commuters had jumped almost 41 per cent, from 264 last May to 372 this May.
Greater Wellington Regional Council spokesman Matthew O'Driscoll said service reliability hit a low point in early 2019 and measures were put in place to counteract problems.
Operator reliability dropped to 93.4 per cent in April 2019. The service's target was 99.5 per cent.
'Significant improvements' had been made by late May following the introduction of an improvement programme. Productivity and performance was expected to continue to increase over the next six months.
In February the services had been affected by an unexpected driver shortage, he said. Following a recruiting campaign driver training schools had doubled.
Since February some peak rail services on the Johnsonville line had been replaced by busses, however afternoon peak rail services would be running again as of June 24.
Slippery track conditions had also been partly to blame for the reliability issues. Seasonal weather impacted train networks worldwide O'Driscoll said.
Bus users made 1524 complaints during the month, compared with 986 in the same month last year. The majority of those came from people in the central city, Khandallah and Brooklyn, as well as Wellington City commuters on east-west and north-south routes.
But there was also some good news.
The council's sustainable transport committee deputy chairman, Daran Ponter, said operator NZ Bus was 'well advanced' in training new drivers as it looked to address a shortfall.
The city's two operators, NZ Bus and Tranzurban, were a combined 60 to 80 drivers short, but the council hoped to fill those vacancies in three to four months.
'NZ Bus is cancelling less services and Metlink will soon be able to reinstate the 20 services which were put on hold in February,' Ponter said.
'I'm hopeful that we will get some really positive changes to routes serving Miramar and Strathmore, in particular, and better frequency of services all round.'